The government has launched a £1.5 million fund offering grants to projects that help people who want to return to work after a long break (typically two years or more) for caring or other reasons. Not surprisingly, perhaps, 90 per cent of these returners are women.

Although the grants are only available to people returning to work in the private sector, there are already public sector returner projects running in the health professions, social work, and the civil service. In addition, a Cyber Security Skills impact fund, run by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, is looking for initiatives that help women who have been out of the labour market due to caring responsibilities to get jobs in cyber security.

Basically, the new fund will provide grants for projects which help returners update their skills, provide other training, or support businesses to increase employment opportunities for returners. The fund will prioritise projects that focus on small and medium enterprises, employers outside London, and projects that support returners at all skill levels.

A toolkit and guidance have been created to support companies that would like to employ returners, which:

  • outlines the business case for returner programmes
  • explains what to consider when developing returner programmes
  • provides case studies from a returner and employer’s point of view

This initiative forms part of the government’s wider strategy to help close the gender pay gap, which includes a requirement on employers with more than 250 staff to publish their gender pay gap figures by next month. However, government research also found recently that a fifth of employers said that, even if they found a gap, they had no intention of taking any subsequent action (weekly LELR 547).

Jo Seery of Thompsons Solicitors commented: “While the government grant is welcome the timing for applying for the grant in the first round, 30 March, is quite tight and comes at a time when the Government has not yet published its findings to its call for evidence, ‘Returning to work after time out for caring’. It therefore, remains to be seen whether the returners fund will lead to changes in employment practice to make it easier for the majority of women, who are unable to return to work because of caring responsibilities, to return jobs which are both flexible and maintain earnings”.

Visit the government website to access the guidance and view the pay gap figures.